I was lucky enough to have been around during the arcade era. And there are only a few games I can distinctly remember the first very time I saw them. Darkstalkers is one of those games. I remember it clearly. It was right in the middle of the college arcade, sitting next to Killer Instinct. I remember walking up to it and just being floored.  

The animation was so fluid compared to other games, the cast so imaginative, the backgrounds so alive, and the fighting rock solid. It was also really funny—full of colorful characters armed with tons of wacky attacks. And the entire cast was composed of monsters! I’ve been a monster fan ever since I was a little kid, so this game felt like it was literally made for me.

While it came out at the end of the arcade era, the franchise got several great ports for the PS1 and Saturn. And now Capcom has dusted off the series and released Darkstalkers Resurrection, a combo of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (Darkstalkers 2) and Darkstalkers 3 for PSN and XBLA.

Why should you care? Put simply, this is one of the best fighting rosters for any game ever made. The variety of fighters and fighting styles is truly impressive. Not to bag on Street Fighter, because I love me some Street Fighter, but often you’re playing X character who is a variant of Y character. And sure there’s a bit of that in Darkstalkers, but not nearly as much.

Another way it’s more fun than SF to me is the fact that the characters are monsters, and have a variety of wild powers and abilities that you would not see in SF. I mean, Blanka’s one of the most fantastic and least human characters in SF, and this game is pretty much composed of a whole bunch of Blankas. So the fights tend to be a little crazier and a lot more unpredictable.  

For instance, the mummy can float through the air and kick you from under the floor, drop sarcophaguses from the ceiling on you, or grab you from all the way across the screen and mummify you before slamming you to the ground. The fishman can poison you, sonically stun you, or surf on a horseshoe crab giant while riding a tidal wave across the screen to crab claw you. Several characters fly, or have weapons, or crazy powers that go beyond what you’ll find in most fighting games.  

The game oozes with personality, all the way down to the tiniest details. Like when the scantily clad cat-girl Felecia wins a match and a mouse runs out, she pounces on it, holds it up in the air and looks at it like, “Hrm…what the heck do I do with this?” The game is full of little details like that that are unnecessary, but add a layer of entertainment to the game. It really feels like the developers were having a lot of fun making this game.  

And the backgrounds are amazing. For some reason, I’ve always enjoyed looking at the backgrounds in fighting games. It usually doesn’t affect the gameplay, but I appreciate good art when I see it. And this game has some of the best backgrounds in any fighting game still to this day! The one that stands out the most would be the “FETUS OF GOD” background. Yes, you read that right. In the background, there is a giant red monster fetus with wings, that mostly sleeps, but occasionally spazzes out waving is gross body parts around. And when the match ends, it totally freaks out, and opens its mouth and scary yellow eyes wide. Oh, also there’s a bunch of throbbing red “protrusions” that uh…throb and look like uh…things. Yeah. Fun stuff!  

But pretty graphics and fancy characters don’t mean nuthin’ if the fighting engine’s ain’t there. And luckily, this is one of the smoothest engines I’ve played. There are so many playable characters with such a variety of great moves, you practically can’t go wrong. It’s such a great engine that even when you lose, it’s still a pleasure to play.  

Okay, I’m officially done gushing—now for the bad parts. The game does not look as good as some of the other re-releases of older games. It‘s by no means ugly, but it’s not on the ultra-crisp level of Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Also, I’m not into Darkstalkers deep enough to understand why they included DS2 and DS3, when DS3 has more characters and a more advanced engine. But I guess it’s nice for the select few who were really into DS2, but not DS3. 

Anywhoots, this is without a doubt early Capcom at their finest. This game succeeds in every possible way, and I can’t recommend it enough. Let’s Fight! 

Hint: Try all the characters! There are no stinkers in this roster! 

by Urian Brown

Related Links: 
Capcom Darkstalkers Site